Our History

Monday, March 8, 2010

Excursion to Mapua's Touch the Sea Aquarium

3rd March 2010As there had been a lot of interest and discussion from the children about fish, sea life and fishing it was decided that a trip to the aquarium would extend their understandings and experiences. So a very excited group of children and adults boarded the bus last Wednesday morning, headed for Mapua. Once we got there the children were split into two groups to make it more manageable, the first group going into the aquarium while the other group had morning tea out on the grass. Then after half an hour or so we swapped around. A half hour was plenty of time for the children to watch and talk about all the bigger fish in the main aquarium, explore the touch pools and spend time observing all the other creatures in the individual tanks.Then later on, while taking a toilet break for a group of boys, we came across two fishermen. As we were standing there one of them caught a snapper. I think that was as exciting as anything for this group of children as these guys commenced to reel the fish in, measure it and then offered to gut it for the children. "Yeah," said one who shall remain nameless, "Cut it's eye out!" He didn't oblige but he did gut the fish and it was of great interest for us to see what was inside, including a piece of green vegetation. "It's lettuce!" said one of the boys. So we decided that this fish had salad for breakfast....or not. Maybe some seaweed!

At 11:00 we boarded the bus again, heading into Richmond where we stopped and visited our friends at Waverley Street Kindergarten and had a picnic lunch out on the playing fields. Then it was really time to get back to our own Kindy where lots of parents were waiting to take tired children home.